Folks who
follow G-POP.net on Facebook would know how interested in
seeing Hidden Figuresafter viewing the trailer for the film. I had
never heard of these women who helped NASA in their finest hours.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see it in theaters, but I finally got the
opportunity to view it the other day.

Dorothy has
been doing the work of a supervisor, but has been unable to attain the actual
title despite having applied for it numerous times and being more than
qualified. Mary Jackson is an aspiring engineer, but, though some see her
potential, laws of segregation prevent her from pursuing a degree in engineering. After the successful launch of a
Russian satellite into space,
NASA begins to feel even more pressure to send an American astronaut into
space. When the promised IBM computer doesn’t arrive on time, Space Task Group
Director Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) turns to Supervisor Vivian Mitchell
(Kirsten Dunst) for a human computer who can solve the challenging
analytic geometry equations needed to get their boys in space and back safely.

Thus, Katherine Goble is assigned to the Space Task Group, becoming the first
colored woman on the team. Though she is met with some opposition and definite
skepticism by Head Engineer Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons), Katherine proves
herself on a number of occasions. Meanwhile, Mary discovers a fatal flaw in the
experimental space capsule’s
heat shields, offering her more incentive to fight
for the degree she now realizes she deserves. And when the IBM 7090 actually
does arrive, Dorothy realizes it will mean the end of her “computers.” Facing
extinction at the hands of a machine, Dorothy decides to learn everything she
can about the IBM 7090 and teach her fellow employees how to program the computer so
their jobs will be saved.

These very
special women helped to ensure that John Glenn’s (Glen Powell)
Earth orbit
launched and arrived home safely. Eventually Mary obtains her engineering
degree, Dorothy becomes supervisor of the Programming Department and Katherine
computes the trajectories for both the Apollo 11 and
Apollo 13 missions.

I’ve read a great deal about the astronauts of the Space Race and even about
their wives. I learned quite a bit about the NASA space program. And yet, I
had never heard of Mary Jackson, Katherine Goble or Dorothy Vaughan prior to
this film. The idea that people with such amazing influence on such a historic
period in American history could fly completely under the radar, never being
discussed in any course in history I’ve ever taken speaks volumes to this
country’s inability to accept women, particularly black women’s, contributions
to our way of life. I’m so glad that someone decided it would be important to
tell the story of these amazing women and I applaud the powers that be who
decided to elevate that telling by adapting the book into movie format. Books
are great at relating history to the masses, but movies bring them to more
people, just based upon the way they are marketed and the availability of the
masses to view them.

True, I have
learned that some of the events were changed a tad for the film, but that
doesn’t take away from the powerful message that Hidden Figures relates
to women of every race, religion and ethnicity – you can achieve anything
through hard work and perseverance. Just look at the challenges these women
faced at the time. Segregation laws meant that the colored computers worked in
an entirely different area than the white computers. Bathrooms for colored were
few and far between and in primarily white buildings, colored bathrooms may not
be present at all. Women were looked down upon and not seen as particularly
capable in jobs like engineering just based upon their gender. Black women were
seen as one step lower than that. This makes what Katherine, Dorothy and Mary
achieved even more amazing. How incredibly empowering this film is to women,
especially black women!

Performances in this film were stellar. I have always said that Taraji P.
Henson is an under-rated actress and she more than proved her worth in her
performance as Katherine Goble. This is as different a character as any she has
ever played before and she nailed it. I loved the sass of Janelle Monae in the
role of Mary Jackson and I’ve loved Octavia Spencer is terrific in every single
role I have ever seen her in, her role as Dorothy Vaughn no exception. It was
nice to see Mahershala Ali in yet another award-winning film this year (see
Moonlight) as the military officer that eventually
wins the heart of Katherine Gobel. Other excellent performances include Kevin
Costner as Al Harrison, Glen Powell as John Glenn and Jim Parsons as a
particularly despicable Paul Stafford.

Hidden
Figures is a well-acted film that sends an important message to women of
today and I would recommend it to anyone, especially parents of young female
children who could use the added positivity of the empowering message this movie
imparts.